How did the General Purpose Technology Electricity contribute to the Second Industrial Revolution (II): The Communication Engines

The concept of the General Purpose Technology (GPT) of the late 1990s is a culmination of many evolutionairy views in innovation-thinking. By definition the GPT considers the technical, social, and economic effects of meta-technologies like steam-technology and electric technology. This paper uses Schumpeter’s concept of ’cluster on innovations’...

The Invisible Hand of Innovation showing in the General Purpose Technology of Electricity

The unintended economic effect on society as result of individual behaviour —Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’ of economic progress in the eighteenth century — had its equivalent in technological progress. In the nineteenth century, again individual behaviour with its Acts of Innovation and Acts of Business had an unintended effect. It changed not...

The Invention of the Wireless Communication Engine

Wireless technology, taken for granted today, was once an innovative wonder that would forever change how the world communicates. Developed by Guglielmo Marconi in the latter half of the nineteenth century, wireless telegraphy combined advancements made by Samuel Morse, William Cooke, Charles Wheatstone, Alexander Graham Bell, and countless...

Search for a Common Ground in the Fogs of Innovation Definitions

Defining Innovation is essential for Innovation Research. However, the available definitions of the notion of innovation found in the increasing scholarly publications, show a large heterogeneity creating confusion and incompatibility. In this paper we analyze the innovation-definitions that emerged after WW-II according their different thinking...

Acts of Invention and Acts of Business in the GPT-Electricity: What did Morse, Bell and Marconi have in common?

The General Purpose Technology of Electricity (GPT-E) as a meta-technology has been a driving force of economic growth in the Second Industrial Revolution. Fuelled by inventions (eg the electric motor/dynamo, electric light, telegraph, and telephone), its micro-foundations were the General Purpose Engines (GPE). These GPEs were the basic...

Lipseys Quest for the Micro-foundations of GPT-the General Purpose Engine

The construct of the General Purpose Technology misses its micro-foundation (as observed by Richard Lipsey). We present a possible solution in the General Purpose Engines. These are the basic innovations and the clusters of contributing and derived innovation, that appear in a Schumpeterian 'cluster of innovations'. These cluster are the basis...

The Invention of the Communication Engine 'Telephone'

This case study is a historic analysis of the developments that resulted in the electric telephone. It is a story about human communication. Long distance communication that had already developed with the electrical telegraph system created by Samuel Morse in America and Cooke & Wheatstone in Britain. But now electricity became—next to its...

How did the General Purpose Technology ’Electricity’ contribute to the Second Industrial Revolution (I): The Power Engines.

The concept of the General Purpose Technology (GPT) of the late 1990s is a culmination of many evolutionairy views in innovation-thinking. By definition the GPT considers the technical, social, and economic effects of meta-technologies like steam-technology and electric technology. This paper uses Schumpeter’s concept of ’cluster on innovations’...

The Invention of the Communication Engine 'Telegraph'

This case study is a historic analysis of the developments that resulted in the electric telegraph. It describes a fascinating development in the early nineteenth century. It is a story about communication. Long distance communication, that had already developed with the optical semaphore system created by Claude Chappe in revolutionary France....

The Invention of the Electric Light

This case study is a historic analysis of the developments that resulted in the electric light. The range of inventions that started with the demonstrations of a sparkling bright light by the Englishman Humphry Davy and the Russian Vasilii Petrov in the early nineteenth century, over the next century culminated into the invention of the...

The Invention of the Electro-motive Engine

This casestudy is a historic analysis of the developments that resulted in the electro-motive engines. It shows the range of inventions that started with Volta’s wet cell, Oersteds moving compass needle, Faradays homopolar motor and Surgeon’s electromagnet, the first steps leading to the electro-motor were taken. Contributions from American,...

The Invention of the Steam Engine

This casestudy is a historic analysis of the developments that resulted in the steam engine. The range of inventions that started with Savery's 'Miner's Friend' (a water pump to solve the dramatic water problem in the British eighteenth century mines) over a century culminated in the steam engine used to power factories, coaches, locomotives and...

Innovation Defined, a Survey

This paper focusses on the definition of the word ‘innovation’ as used in scholarly manuscripts (books and articles) about the topic of Innovation. The research was done in 1988, and reported in the Dutch Language in a Research Paper of the University of Eindhoven (The Netherlands). As preparation for a comparable larger study in 2013, the...